Mancation

One heck of a trip -- second time with Wilson and Doug to MAM, and although the supermono was quite fun last year, the long front straight was pretty tough on the wee bike, trying to keep up with everything else.  So it was the 650 this time, and although it wasn't running quite perfectly, it was a blast.  Got into the mid 1:48s,

which is OK I guess, but looking at the above video, and the later laps where I turned my fastest times, there is considerably more potential left in the bike to go much faster.  As you can see above, the drift camera worked quite well.  I was able to get quite a few videos of each sesson on the camera, and downloaded onto the PC.

As you can see, there was quite a few Canadians who made the trip down -- thanks to Rod from Freightliner MB for making up the shirts, and giving them away for free.  What a solid dude.  The fellow third from the right on the front row is AMA winner and top 10 superbike racer Chris Peris.  He was at MAM to work with Rod on his race technique.  Unfortunately I didn't get much schooling as both guys went by me so fast!  There is some copius talent in an AMA pro -- pretty humbling, although Chris seemed really friendly when I spoke with him breifly.

Bummer for Wilson as his TZ broke, but Rod lent him his hot-rod 1080 SS, again as you can see by the video, his bike simply walks away from the 650 with ease.  Doug had an eventful weekend as well, being run off the track, crashing into a brake marker, banging up his hand quite well yet keeping it all upright; during the last session his chain broke on top of it.  A boring but uneventful ride home and back to work on Tuesday.

The fuel tank on the 650 was not venting at all, so I think that is why the bike wouldn't rev out.  We'll see if repairing that takes care of that problem.

The mito frame and swingarm has shown up from Germany.  A test-fit shows that the swingarm mates up perfectly to the engine (!) except for the 17mm - 14mm bolt size difference.  The frame should be an OK fit as well, but I'm not 100% sure as I need to sort out the swingarm pivot first.

I've also designed a rear subframe in my head, and have ordered some 4130 from wicks to start fabricating that part.  Pics of the huskymono to come...

Early alignment

The new Husky engine is home, and looks to be in excellent shape, considering what I paid for it -- double the price, it still would have been a deal.  I started the process of seeing how things line up with the engine and the swingarm.  Not sure exactly what I'll use -- either the rg125 swingarm, or go with the mito swingarm.  As you can see below, the Italian guy who did this conversion used both the mito frame and swingarm... so before I make any final decisions and start cutting metal, I did some test-fitting...
First off, the rs125 wheel fits almost perfectly in the swingarm -- just need to shave a couple of thou off each end of the wheel assy -- as in the spacers, and it will slide in perfectly.  So, I knew if I could butt the cush drive against the inside edge of the swingarm, I could see if the sprockets line up.

I clamped a piece of aluminum angle against the rear sprocket to act as a straight edge (note the new trailer in the background -- happy birthday to me!).

The idea is to see how close the outside edge of the sprockets come in relation to each other -- of course I have the rear axle square in the dropouts as well.

Hmmm, I'd say that lines up pretty good, eh?

With this pic you can also see how well the swingarm fits vis a vis the rear engine case.  I did actually shave a bit off of the inside of one of the arms, but it was only about half a millimeter.  Almost "meant to be".  However, I can't get ahead of myself.  A few things to sort out...

1.  The mito uses a 14mm swingarm pivot axle -- this is a 17mm -- depending on which swingarm I end up using might send me off in different directions... this swingarm seems to look good, but it would mean modifying the frame (and welding alu) to get it to work.

2.  Obviously it is possible to get this engine to work with the mito swingarm, which will then work with the mito frame.  However decent shock options are limited, and the 14mm axle might be an issue.  Do I shim the engine case, or can I do some funky bearing swaps and get the 17 mm axle to work in the swingarm...?  Which would then necessitate drilling out the frame. 

More questions than answers at this point -- just need to be patient (not one of my strong suits) and wait for the mito frame to arrive.

The good news is, I got both the 650 and the 400 started and running this past weekend (even with the new carb for the mono), and the trip to Mid America is only 3 weeks away.  Can't wait!!!!!!